Sulfides, such as sodium sulfide nonahydrate (hereinafter referred to as sodium sulfide), are effective keratolytic agents useful for softening nails and as depilatory agents for removing unwanted hair. Cosmetics, Science and Technology, Edward Sagarin (Ed.) lnterscience Publishers, a division of John Wiley & Sons, New York, (1957) in the Chapter 20 Depilatories by Richard H. Barry, on pages 457-478 provides an historical review on the use of sulfide-containing depilatories. A long-standing problem exists in this art, however. Sulfides tend to be extremely unstable during storage and numerous attempts have been made to stabilize this class of compounds. For example, there are numerous references which teach allegedlly stabilized sufide compositions, such as U.S. Pat. No. 1,379,855 (1921) to J. Donner, U.S. Pat. No. 2,031,489 (1936) to F. Koenigsberger and U.S. Pat. No. 2,487,558 (1949) to J. Kamlet. However, none of these references provides a process for effectively carrying out the preparation of a sulfide-containing composition in the substantial absence of decomposing or oxidizing agents such as oxygen, carbon dioxide and various metallic impurities which can rapidly decompose the sulfide in the composition during preparation, storage or use. Thus, the decomposition renders the sulfide-containing compositions ineffective for their intended uses. Accordingly, a different approach was needed to provide truly stable, sulfide-containing compositions.